>> hello and welcome to global 3000, your weekly check on the global issues that affect us all. today we focus on corruption. as the united nations marks international anti-corruption day on the 9th of december we ask, why it is so hard to crack down on the tangled web of business and politics. and here's what we have coming up. safe distance for now -- a mexican journalist fights corruption from germany. laying down the law -- britain's new bribery act raises the bar. and trees against climate change -- the business case for reforestation in mexico.

no country is immune from corruption. where business and political interests interact there is always the risk that people on both sides will seek their personal advantage. political corruption flourishes when democratic institutions are weak or non-existent. china is no exception. in his first major speech china's new leader xi jinping publicly acknowledged that the communist party leadership must put an end to this problem. recent protests across china say that the party leaders are the problem. and one blogger has found an effective way to expose corruption online. >> this collection of unspectacular pictures of government functionaries at official events seems hardly worth a glance. but a second look reveals details that have shocked people across china -- luxury wrist watches that sell for as much 60,000 euros.

the upmarket timepieces are hardly affordable on a modest official's salary. everyone knows that -- which is why watches have become symbols of corruption and bribery. this activist has placed hundreds of similar photographs on the internet -- along with the price of the watches. he doesn't want to be recognized because he regularly receives threats from state security. >> i wanted to show these pictures to make people aware of the phenomenon so that public pressure would force the cases to be investigated. but the opposite has happened. the authorities delete the photos from the web and do everything to protect these officials from scrutiny. >> rampant corruption is a huge problem for the rulers of this one-party state. in just the past five years, the

communist party has investigated 660,000 cases. corrupt officials have moved an estimated 120 billion dollars abroad. thousands of them have retired on their ill-gotten wealth, while hundreds of thousands continue to take bribes. and those are just the official figures. >> there is corruption everywhere in china. government officials have to bribe someone to get their posts in the first place. then once they're in office they take money. they keep a part of it for themselves, and use the rest to bribe higher-ranking officials. >> for years journalist zhu ruifeng has been investigating cases of corruption throughout china. he has exposed a number of senior figures and revealed how closely business interests and politics are entangled.

>> entrepreneurs have to conspire with the government. it starts when they register their business. if they don't pay, they don't get the authorization or other permits they need. the government controls all aspects of the economy and to do business you have to bribe officials. the people's supervision network is the name of the website where zhu publishes the results of his research. one recent case involves a shopping center in huidong in the south of the country the mall opened in 2007 and went well at first. 1600 businesses moved in; all the stores were occupied. the owner hu weimin had invested 35 million euros in the building. then one day the local police chief came to him and demanded 60,000 euros. >> this is how i see it.

there's another shopping center here and its owner is a friend of the police chief. as long as he was doing good business, the chief got his part. but as my mall flourished, the other guy lost business -- so he got the police to make trouble for me. >> mr. hu refused to pay the extortion money. what happened after that sounds like a classic mafia story. workers complained that they hadn't been paid and came and broke the windows in the mall. one of hu's employees, the security guard gong chengzhang, was on duty that day. he got involved in a fight with the angry workers. the police came and arrested him. >> a few days after my arrest they took me to be interrogated.

the only thing the police wanted was for me to implicate my boss, businessman hu, and say he'd ordered me to beat up the workers. >> when gong chengzhang failed to testify against his boss he was held in jail for eight months. hu's troubles continued. sometimes the electricity was turned off, or broken water pipes were not repaired. the police repeatedly came by and harassed the small storeowners. more and more of them closed down their shops. >> the regrettable thing is that a single person -- this chief of police -- has so much power to do so much harm. he managed to prevent my business from developing and caused me great financial losses. it's really sad.

>> the police chief has since been dismissed, but the shop owners who were driven away have not come back. suing for damages is not an option in china. the party functionaries protect each other. there's no point in charging them -- forget that. because if you want to win your case in court you have to bribe the judge." +++ >> as more and more cases emerge, china's communist party has vowed to curb corruption. but critics say the problem is that the system itself is corrupt. as long as that doesn't change, these boring official photos continue to be very revealing. >> creating transparency online is one way of tackling corruption -- but it's often journalists who connect the dots. these investigations costs many of them their lives. reporters without borders say

somalia, syria and mexico are currently the most dangerous places for journalists. now we meet ana lilia perez, a mexican reporter and writer who found out first-hand that corruption, and not the drug cartels, is the biggest problem in mexico. we caught up with her here in germany. >> taking a walk without a bullet-proof vest -- that's been a liberating feeling for ana lilia pérez in the six months she's been in hamburg. at home in mexico she spent the past few years protected by bodyguards to ward off murderous attacks. >> it makes a huge difference to be living in one of the safest countries in the world -- a country where it's not normal to see people being gunned down on the street or where armed groups take over entire villages.

this is very positive for me because it helps me realize that the things going on in my country are not normal and that mexicans shouldn't accept that situation as normal. >> the journalist was only 20 when she first made a name for herself as an investigative reporter for daily and weekly newspapers. she's convinced her work can bring about change. >> journalism is a way of life for me, a world view. at some point journalism becomes as important as life itself. in my case i see journalism as a path, as a way of changing things to really make a difference. >> during her political exile in

germany pérez has been preparing lectures and working on her latest book. in an earlier one, "el cartel negro" -- or the black cartel -- she described the connections between the drug mafia and the state-owned oil company. >> suddenly i discovered that high-ranking government officials and respected politicians and their families were involved in serious corruption cases. they were involved in money laundering, fraud, embezzlement of public funds. i think this is a core theme for journalists because most of the major problems we have in mexico are associated in one way or another with corruption.

>> in germany pérez has given many lectures about freedom of the press in mexico. she does not expect the threats to journalists to stop anytime soon. >> i think about the things i've experienced and it's hard. i had to learn to live with the fear and work with fear. i believe there are new tasks in store for me. i want to continue working as a journalist and i want to return to my country. >> there's no question of her quitting -- even when she's back in mexico surrounded by her bodyguards. >> public scrutiny is just as important in private industry. eads, one of the world's largest defense contractors, is currently facing serious bribery allegations. public prosecutors believe

bribes may have figured in the sale of eurofighter jets to the austrian government. britain has had its share of corruption allegations reaching beyond the defense industry. but one and a half years ago the british government launched the bribery act, billed as one of the toughest anti-corruption laws to date. we take a look at what impact it has made so far. >> corruption is everywhere -- including in britain. but now the law is coming down hard on it. the country's bribery act makes companies liable for acts of corruption by employees -- whether at home or abroad. >> businesses are having to do more investigations. because they have to be able to demonstrate that they are taking these allegations seriously. so if a regulator is to knock on the door, maybe the financial services authority or the

serious fraud office, they can demonstrate that not only have they put controls in place, but when theyve had suspicion of bribery and corruption that theyve investigated it and resolved that issue. >> corruption specialist david alexander works for a large accounting firm in london. when companies suspect an employee has offered or accepted a bribe, the first thing they do is impound the person's computer. david alexander has had more work since the law came into effect. it makes companies keep a tighter rein on their activities -- and the line between what's legal and what's not has grown clearer. >> you are trying to get your goods through customs, you might pay a small facilitation patent to the customs officer to ensure that your goods are transferred through customs quicker. that is not allowed within the uk bribery and it is a good example of where the legislation has sought to cut out a grey area.

>> transparency international played a part in developing the bribery act. before it, the uk was lagging behind in the fight against corruption. >> if you go back to 2007, we had zero cases. whereas the us had more than a hundred, germany had more than fifty. we are now catching up. i hope that with the bribery act we will see a further increase in uk law enforcement and see more cases coming through. >> how can companies protect themself against employees being corrupt? that's a particular challenge for large firms. halcrow group employs 4,500 people in britain -- most of them engineers. they work on construction sites around the world. bribery is common practice in the building sector, so halcrow

has taken to training its staff at least once a year so everyone knows what's allowed. >> recognizing an approach, it could come in a very innocent way, or innocent looking way. and so its about ensuring that our people dont expose themselves and the company by getting sucked into a position whereby they have unwittingly engaged in corrupt practice. >> halcrow employees are neither allowed to accept gifts, nor to hand them out. >> particularly with government clients, we dont even offer tea or coffee or water at a meeting because we know that their policies actually forbid them from accepting them. >> halcrow is playing it safe. british officials hope that stiff penalties will act as a deterrent. but the serious fraud office, the bribery act's main enforcer, has had its budget cut -- and, so far, no major case has gone to court.

>> so having a law and actually implementing it are still two very different stories. and now we'd like to tickle your taste buds -- yes, it's time to look at our global snack buffet -- and today we head to south africa. >> today's global snack comes from cape town. with three and a half million residents, it's south africa's second largest city after johannesburg. edwin and mervin collins run a snack bar right in the center of town. >> there's chicken or pork on

offer -- but the traditional item here is a uniquely south african grilled sausage invented by the first european settlers. it's called boerewors. >> it has a distinct taste, like it's from the farm, and that's what it is -- farm sausage, boerewors, boere are farmers. the sausages consist of 30% pork, twice as much beef, and lots of fat. but the distinct taste comes from the spices used to flavor the meat and the sauces. we put 5 different spices, spices you don't normally associate with woers. like coriander, cumin, vinegar -- obviously salt and pepper -- and i forget the other two. >> the brothers were once successful entrepreneurs.

but they went broke two years ago in the midst of the economic crisis. but they're not bitter. now they're grill chefs and vying with humor for every customer. most of the customers are employees from the nearby offices and shops. >> it's just a quick snack that you can just take on the go, eat on the go. so that's why. >> the collins brothers are hoping to open up more sausage stands around cape town. >> our planet is losing some 35 football fields of forest every minute. that's according to the wwf. stopping this trend is an enormous challenge for politicians, interest groups and those who live and work on the land. in mexico's chiapas region, many small business successes are beginning to change people's attitudes to trees.

>> this seemingly idyllic landscape hides signs of destruction. instead of trees everywhere, there are grassy mounds like this one. an alarm signal for alejandro hernandez of the nature conservancy. the environmentalist says it only looks this green because the rainy season just ended. >> the effects of climate change have become apparent in chiapas in the past 15 years in the form of natural disasters triggered by tropical storms that have caused landslides and flooding in numerous villages and communities in chiapas.

deforestation is one of the main reasons -- not only because it aggravates climate change, but because it worsens the production conditions for the people and their prospects for the future. >> not until an altitude of 1,000 meters do we find healthy forest in chiapas. the trees up here help regulate the water cycle in a natural way. they collect rainwater and release it again slowly. losing the trees can have fatal results. in 1998 the village of valdivia was leveled by disastrous flooding that followed weeks of rain. this is where the elementary school once stood. >> it was 4:00 in the morning when the river burst its banks. the water was four or five meters deep.

when the people realized what was going on they tried to flee to a dry place. many of them were trapped on their roofs. we didn't lose anyone from our family, but 27 people died in the village. >> valdivia's church now stands in a swamp. for years alejandro hernandez has been working to prevent such disasters. he shows farmers in chiapas how important reforestation is for them. one problem is that young trees are often cut down to make way for new fields. >> we realized that the most

important thing was to work with what primarily interested the local community -- and that's meeting their basic needs. so we began working with farming and production methods and using that to show them how much reforestation can help. not just because it's funded or because it's pretty, but because the trees keep the moisture and the nutrients in the soil and retain the water. forests have a lot of advantages for us. >> but to reap those advantages, the farmers have to give up old habits. with the support of the environmental organization, rocael ramirez has planted trees among his corn. that helps hold down the soil. and he keeps the remnants of the harvest as rich compost for the

next sowing. >> i used to cut down the trees on the mountain and then plant corn for two or three years. i'd burn the remains of the harvest and when the rains came they'd wash it all away. and now we've been here for 15 years and we're still getting good harvests -- after 15 years -- because we're protecting the soil. >> the method that works on the mountainsides also applies to the valleys. here in salto de agua, alejandro hernandez has convinced dairy farmer benjamin morales to plant trees on his pastureland. they help nourish the soil and improve the grass. when it withers during the dry period, the animals eat the protein-rich fruits from the trees.

and they not only provide a shady spot for a siesta -- but help the cows sweat less and produce more milk. >> to tell the truth, when we first heard about this, i thought this won't do any good; my pasture is fine like it is -- without trees. but then the seeds arrived and we started planting the trees and did our sowing. and i was surprised and wondered why i hadn't done this before. i used to get 30 liters -- or at most 40 liters of milk a day. and now it's 80 or 90 liters. >> now nearly two dozen dairy farmers in salto agua have taken the advice of the conservationists. they are now producing so much milk that they've opened their own cheese factory.

the cheese fetches a much higher price than the milk. the new methods have enabled these farmers not only to protect the environment and the climate, but to also improve their livelihoods. and that leaves an excellent taste in their mouths. >> and that's all we have time for on this edition of global 3000. thanks for watching and don't forget to tune in again in seven days time when we'll have more reports on global stories that matter. until then -- bye bye! captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--